Negative Sensationalism Throughout the week, talk shows such as Maury and Jerry Springer are displayed on our TV screens. Whether or not a person is a vigorous viewer, the storyline of the show comes up in a conversation at least once a week. Talk shows regularly take a look into the life choices of a certain person or group of people. In the text “In Defense of Talk Shows”, Barbara Ehrenreich raises the question of the moral conflicts presented in talk shows and presents the idea that they are an exploitation of lower class people.
One hundred years ago nobody heard about the news or current events from Facebook or the newest tweet. Until fairly recently the most up to date news had to be heard through the grapevine or read in a newspaper. Since the creation of the internet and the mass media that comes with it, information can now be spread all the way across the world in the time it takes to hit the enter button on a computer or phone and upload it to the internet. Some people think that this is a bad thing because so many things that are uploaded can be either false information or simply information that is misleading and could teach individuals the wrong thing. However, if mass media is used in the right way it can be beneficial to the accessibility of valuable information,
Neal Gabler defines entertainment in his book Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality as a damaging power which is able to “ruin” society (Gabler, 1998). However, according to Longman Dictionary, entertainment refers to “things such as films, television, performances etc that are intended to amuse or interest people”; to be more objective, it “entails communication via external stimuli, which reaches a generally passive audience and gives some portion of that audience pleasure” (Bates & Ferri, 2010). The contradiction of these definitions shows that entertainment makes both negative and positive influences on society, so it is not entertainment itself, but the way how it is used by human beings has the capacity to “ruin” or improve
It’s evident that humanity has achieved seemingly impossible feats through technology and inventions; yet, it’s equally clear that technology can be a mindless distraction from unavoidable life issues that individuals try to escape. Though technology was intended for good, something people can benefit from, it’s become a quick escape for people so that they may easily sit and drool before a colored screen instead of applying themselves to something meaningful. Television and social media has hindered humanity because of its uselessness. It is an unnecessary addition to people’s daily routine that ultimately allows people to pretend to be involved in society, but in reality it creates a means to evade responsibility and endeavors.
However, the media has twisted the minds of the public into a different perspective of these
The first theory, agenda setting through gatekeeping, is evident in the film. Agenda setting “looks on story selection as a determinant of public perceptions of issue importance” (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 7). The term gatekeeping is similarly used to “describe the way the media make decisions about what stories to discard or run and when and how much attention to give a story” (Laidlaw, 41). In the movie, the British media highlighted the death of Princess Diana and how the Royal Family was not showing enough grief. The British media prioritized this story, which can be seen from how the announcement of Princess Diana’s death appeared on numerous media outlets.
In America, Media bias is everywhere, in the United States all the information that an average American received through everyday sources, the news was most likely processed through the media and told through a biased point of view, when the media gets their hands on news if it is important then it probably won’t be talked about or downplayed no matter the source like in the newspaper, radio, television, movies, as well as other outlets that the media uses, the media only seems to share the news that they find interesting, even then the media would most likely have changed the story, in what they say is just tweaked news, what actually happened and what really happened would be two different stories, also the story would be told from one person
Society expect to be constantly entertained; they have become so concerned with things such as who the latest star is dating, scandals, or dumb people doing rather idiotic things. Much of society have been consumed in their personal instant gratification and what makes them “happy”. When on an off chance that news does show things that are serious and impactful(not necessarily positive things that is happening in the world) people have become so numb that the best they could do is feel sympathetic and at worst continue on with their day. The other part of the problem is that those behind what is being published and shown on the news media have been absorbed in their avarice nature, whatever allows them to make as much profit they do. “Writing thousands of hours of coverage from what could have been summarized in a couple of minutes every few weeks, a new rhetorical strategy was developed, or-let’s be generous-evolved”(6), Saunders describes the new formula formed by mass news firms that would yield the most profit.
The central theme of media manipulation and the consequences of that are explained and uncovered in Ryan Holiday’s book Trust Me I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator. Holiday offers a brutally honest insight into the world of PR and journalism, one that many people can have trouble accepting and one that makes us doubt every form of media and advertisement around us and exposes the twisted relationship between online media and marketing. In the beginning of the book, Holiday admits that he is a liar, but asks the readers to believe everything he says. As mentioned in an article published by Poynter institute, “He has a point to make, but he 's like the addict warning of the dangers of drugs, all the while snorting a line and shaking his head at how bad it is” (Silverman, 2012).
The theoretical framework of this thesis is based on agenda setting theory and the concept of framing. Walter Lippmann intellectually founded the concept of agenda setting. Even though Lippmann not yet mentions agenda setting namely, he does indeed elaborate the theoretical foundation and the general ideas, which essentially define agenda setting theories today (McCombs 2004, 3). “His thesis is that the news media, our windows to the vast world beyond direct experience, determine our cognitive maps of that world” (McCombs 2004, 3).
The spread of false information or “fake news” in today’s society is creating mobs of people with uninformed or misguided rage that causes them to abandon rational thinking. For example the aforementioned awful repercussions of pizzagate came to a head when It was reported that “the Washington DC pizzeria Comet Ping Pong fell victim to fake news in 2016 when false internet stories claimed the restaurant was operating a child sex ring. Responding to the story an armed vigilante entered the pizzeria and began firing a rifle”(Currie 6). It has clear that this is a problem that can affect anyone from big name politicians to small time pizza places.
November, 2015 Social media and its vague credibility Thesis Statement: Social media is not a reliable source of news because of its vulnerability to fake information, lack of validation, and the journalists’ inclusion of biases. Nowadays, people would not do something the traditional way, most especially, if there is a shortcut, less energy-requiring. The ever-busy world, which continuously develops, created people who lack patience, who are always up for instants—instants such as instant updates. They are always eager to know what has just happened or what is currently happening.
Mass media play a very significant and determinant role in the contemporary world, by broadcasting and communicating information in fast pace and at the same time entertaining vast audiences. Mass media have a tremendous impact on the structure and history of our society due to the fact that they can influence and shape public opinion, determine political agendas, affect socialization and create a relationship between people and government. They consist of television, press, internet, radio and books and they became one of the main sources of popular culture in the modern capitalist society. Media’s role, however, is not only to offer news and entertainment but also to transfer and cultivate a variety of social stereotypes, beliefs and values of the society in order to reproduce the order and the already existing formation of social life. In this paper, I shall examine the notion, the types and some important theories on stereotypes as well as their dependable relation with media.
Tabloidization is the change in the format of newspaper into the tabloid form and enhanced focus on entertainment and celebrities deviating from the serious issues. Media is the imperative as well the integral element of polity and the fourth estate of the democracy. The present trend of media is more of a show than a medium of delivering the news. Media has taken to gossips, sex and sensationalization which distracts the attention of the people from the real issues around the world. Glamour is now a regular dosage in the everyday newspaper, which gave birth to the so called page 3 culture.
According to Baran (2012) mass communication can be defined as “the process of creating shared meaning between the mass media and their audiences.” This essay aims to discuss the degree to which we are shaped by our interaction with the media. In order to achieve the aforementioned aim of this essay I will focus on the following: limited-effects theory, two-step flow theory, attitude change theory and agenda setting. The limited effects theory sets out that media influence is based on individual and social characteristics.
